THE GUARDIAN: Syrian president denied responsibility for the Houla massacre in his first public address for five months
Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, defended his government's bloody crackdown on dissent, comparing his security forces – who have been repeatedly accused of torture and mass killing – to surgeons working to save the life of their patients.
Speaking before a newly selected parliament, Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, said: "When a surgeon ... cuts and cleans and amputates, and the wound bleeds, do we say to him your hands are stained with blood? Or do we thank him for saving the patient?"
In his first public address for five months, Assad denied responsibility for the Houla massacre in which more than 100 civilians died – almost half of them children - and most killed at close range with guns and knives. "Not even monsters would carry out [the crimes] that we have seen," he said.
Assad's comments contradicted the accounts of many witnesses and survivors, including a defecting air force officer, Major Jihad Raslan, who told the Observer the killings were carried out by a regime-controlled militia, the shabiha. UN investigators say there are indications that the shabiha carried out at least some of the killings on 25 and 26 May, while the UN security council rebuked the Syrian government for using heavy artillery in civilian areas. » | Julian Borger | Sunday, June 03, 2012
